I have just registered KS Advanced Host Monitor after spending about two weeks evaluating it. I was searching for an alternative to WhatsUp Gold. There were several reasons that convinced me to purchase AHM and I wanted to share some of the more important ones with you.
For our purposes (and in my opinion), AHM is clearly superior to WhatsUp in nearly all areas of comparison. Probably most significant for me, AHM makes SNMP monitoring much simpler and we are becoming much more dependent upon good SNMP monitoring.
BTW, I've found OidView ( http://www.oidview.com ) to be an excellent companion application to AHM for setting up SNMP monitoring. The MIBs of a device can be quickly and easily downloaded, then explored with OidView, then the OID can be easily pasted into AHM's test setup.
After working with AHM for a couple of weeks I have discovered that I very much prefer AHM's 'all relevant info at-a-glance' approach to WhatUp's 'pretty diagram, drill down and right click forever' approach.
Host Monitor's ease of configuration. Once I defined a set of tests, I can use a simple text editor to create those same tests quickly and easily for dozens of other machines.
Your public forum (love the phpBB software) and the responsiveness you provide here. It takes both guts and confidence to allow your customers to interact freely. A great many well known products wouldn't dare do this.
Versatility. Advanced Host Monitor is like a Swiss Army knife on steroids.
Cost. I've looked at enterprise monitoring tools costing much more and clearly, HM provides excellent value. I especially wanted to thank you for keeping the cost of HM well within the range of most small businesses.
In the end, I felt KS Host Monitor was a very powerful tool, far superior to WhatsUp (for our needs) and a great value. I also want to thank the participants of the Usenet groups who suggested I check out KS Advanced Host Monitor.
It's now been nearly 7 years since I first made this post. I have used Advanced Host Monitor pretty much constantly over this period and across 3 different employers.
Seven years ago, Host Monitor was an exceptional value - great flexibility and very cost effective. Today, that is even more true. Host Monitor has grown over the years to become even more useful, more flexible and more cost effective.
The incredible amount of work Alex and crew have put into Host Monitor really shows. Host Monitor also reflects the vast amount of time KS-Soft spends LISTENING to its customers and end users.
As a network administrator, Host Monitor has consistently provided me with the tools I need to be proactive in my job. But this past year, as others in my IT department have become aware of Host Monitor's capabilities (we currently have 5 RCC licenses - deployed to 'test developers'), the use of Host Monitor has evolved in ways that I never envisioned when I originally requested the purchase of the product for my job functions. Host Monitor is now viewed here not simply as a 'tool the net admin uses' but as a cost effective tool of value to the entire IT department - useful at all IT levels across the enterprise.
Kudos to Alex and the entire KS-Soft staff. Great job. Great product.
